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Cinq Mélodies populaires grecques

Introduction

Ravel was involved in arranging some Corsican folk songs in the 1890s, but nothing similar then came his way until February 1904 when a friend, the critic M D Calvocoressi, was asked to find someone to set six songs for a lecture entitled ‘The songs of oppressed peoples—Greeks and Armenians’. Ravel wrote the settings in thirty-six hours, but felt that four of them were too scanty. The remaining two, Quel galant m’est comparable? and Chanson des cueilleuses de lentisques, found their way into the Cinq mélodies populaires grecques performed as part of two lecture-recitals by Calvocoressi during the 1905–6 season. If the original accompaniments were too scanty, the ones we have are by no means over-succulent, with simple harmonies and many bare fifths. In Quel galant, Ravel curiously but effectively negates the Aeolian mode of the tune, based on A, by treating it tonally in G major. In Chanson des cueilleuses, on the other hand, the Lydian D sharps are a feature of both tune and accompaniment. It may be worth pointing out that ‘lentisques’ have nothing to do with lentils: Pistachia lentiscus, the lentisk tree, exudes mastic, a pale yellow gum-resin used for varnish, cement and liquor. For the girls engaged in gathering this substance, having sticky hands may well have made the ‘blond angel’ of their desire seem further off than ever.

The first song of the set, Chanson de la mariée, was correctly retitled by Ravel when he orchestrated it some thirty years later as Le réveil de la mariée, what might vulgarly be termed ‘The bride’s wake-up call’. The Phrygian modality of the original tune (G minor with A flat) suggested to Ravel not just the occasional A flat major chord, but a succession of five chords in which the frisson between A flat and G minor is intensified by chromatic harmonies. Là-bas, vers l’église, also on a Phrygian tune, celebrates villagers buried in the local cemetery, and the final words, ‘Du monde tous les plus braves!’, intimate that they were killed in battle. Here the spread chords evoke bells with wonderful economy. The final song, Tout gai!, is in a tonal A flat major with not an accidental in sight, while the slight variations in the second verse are just enough to preclude predictability.

Recordings

'this is singing which is always alive, interesting, and personal … a fascinating record' (Gramophone)'[Schade] sings Strauss’s Cäcilie and a wonderfully hushed Zueignung as though he and Martineau were the first to discover their ecstasy ...» More

Awake, awake, my darling partridge, Open to the morning your wings. Three beauty marks; my heart is on fire! See the ribbon of gold that I bring To tie round your hair. If you want, my beauty, we shall marry! In our two families, everyone is related!

English: Emily Ezust

For a musicological lecture on Greek and Armenian folk songs in Paris in early 1904, the singer hired to provide musical illustrations felt uncomfortable about delivering these a cappella, and so, at the last minute, asked the young composer Maurice Ravel to write keyboard accompaniments for five Greek melodies. Ravel polished off this task in thirty-six hours, and the lecture went off as scheduled on 20 February. Ravel was particularly pleased with his treatments of two of the songs, and these became the nucleus of his own set of Cinq mélodies populaires grecques, completed in 1906. The simple, exotic melodies, sometimes peculiarly ornamented and modal in harmonic implications, suggested felicitous impressionistic keyboard details to the composer who was then already at work on his early piano masterpiece Miroirs. The added numbers (1, 2 and 5) are somewhat heavier in texture than the two efforts from 1904. Yet if later effects such as the crystalline glow that suffuses the opening Le réveil and the rhythmic liveliness of the closing Tout gai! add a musical dimension to the group, one can see why Ravel was also proud of his economic gestures in the simpler settings – notably the dance motif that punctuates Quel galant.

Wake up, wake up, pretty partridge, Spread your wings to the morning. Three beauty spots—and my heart’s ablaze. See the golden ribbon I bring you To tie around your tresses. If you wish, my beauty, let us marry! In our two families all are related.

Yonder, by the church, By the church of Ayio Sidero, The church, O blessed Virgin, The church of Ayio Costanndino, There are gathered, Assembled in numbers infinite, The world’s, O blessed Virgin, All the world’s most decent folk!

Down there by the church, By the church of Saint Sideros, The church, O Holy Virgin, The church of Saint Constantine, Are gathered together, buried in infinite numbers, The bravest people, O Holy Virgin! The bravest people in the world!

O joy of my soul, Joy of my heart, Treasure which is so dear to me, Joy of my soul and heart, You whom I love ardently, You are more handsome than an angel. O when you appear, Angel so sweet, Before our eyes, Like a fine, blond angel, Under the bright sun, Alas! all of our poor hearts sigh!

O joy of my soul, joy of my heart, Treasure so dear to me; Joy of the soul and of the heart, You whom I love with passion, You who are more beautiful than an angel. Oh when you appear, angel so sweet, Before our eyes, Like a lovely, blond angel Under the bright sun— Alas, all our poor hearts sigh!